Many-to-Many Eloquent relationship update with Laravel Form Model Binding & Checkboxes

Question

I have 3 tables:

doors

id
name
image

colors

id
name
image

door_colors

id
door_id
color_id

and 2 models with a many-to-many relationship (each door comes in a variety colors, and many colors overlap door-to-door):

Door Model

class Door extends Eloquent {
    public function colors()
    {
        return $this->belongsToMany('Color', 'door_colors');
    }
}

Color Model

class Color extends Eloquent {
    public function doors()
    {
        return $this->belongsToMany('Door', 'door_colors');
    }
}

I want to create a form where I can edit the door, and update the available colors via checkboxes. This is my Admin Doors Controller

class AdminDoorsController extends AdminController {
    public function edit($id)
    {
        $data['door'] = Door::find($id);
        $data['colors'] = Color::all();
        return View::make('admin/doors/form', $data);
    }
}

and the Admin Doors Form View

{{ Form::model($door) }}
Colors:
@foreach ($colors as $color)
{{ Form::checkbox('colors[]', $color->id) }} {{ $color->name }}
@endforeach
{{ Form::close() }}

Question 1: How do I make it so that as the checkboxes are outputted, the ones with an existing relationship with the current door are checked and the ones without are unchecked.

Question 2: Once I check the boxes and hit submit, how would I update the relationships? $door->colors()->detach(); to clear all existing ones for this door, then $door->colors()->attach($color_id_array); to create new ones based on an array of color ids?

Any input is appreciated!

score 25 · Answer 1 · edited Jun 02 '14 at 12:01

Question 1: You should pass this into the view that contains your form, though it can also go right in the view, though that's not really best practice. Do something similar to this...

$checkeds = Door::find(1)->colors()->lists('id');

...where the door you are finding is the door that's being updated. Then before you output the checkbox in the loop, add

$checked = in_array($color->id, $checkeds) ? true : false;

Then you would change

{{ Form::checkbox('colors[]', $color->id) }} 
{{ $color->name }}`

to

{{ Form::checkbox('colors[]', $color->id, $checked) }}
{{ $color->name }}

Question 2: There is actually a perfect method given to you for this. Use

$door->colors()->sync(Input::get('colors'));

It will both delete the old ones and add all the new ones in one shot.

Great solution! Worked like a charm in Laravel 5.1 with simple modification. — Felipe Francisco, Dec 31 '15 at 16:19
The `lists` method has been replaced with `pluck`. This solution worked great, thanks! — Daniel Elkington, Apr 26 '18 at 02:14

score 4 · Answer 2 · answered Jul 17 '14 at 16:47

Suppose you are modeling user and role and want to edit user with roles.

In your controller edit,

$user = User::find($id);
$roles = Role::lists('name', 'id'); // to populate all roles

In your template if you use select,

{{ Form::select('roles[]', $roles, array_pluck($user->roles, 'id'), ['multiple']) }}

In your controller update,

$inputs = Input::all();
$roles = $inputs['roles'];
$user->roles()->sync($roles);

// $user->fill($inputs);
// $user->save();

Many-to-Many Eloquent relationship update with Laravel Form Model Binding & Checkboxes

2 Answers2

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